1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transliteration system allowing no ambiguity for both romanization and reverse transliteration processes of Korean language and providing the closest phonetic similarity between Korean characters of the Korean language and corresponding English alphabet renditions, and more particularly, to a transliteration system implemented into a computer for converting English syllables into Korean syllables and the Korean syllables into the English syllables with unambiguity and phonetic fidelity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A foreign language is traditionally or typically romanized based on a phonetic way of how it is pronounced with only secondary consideration on the spelling in the native language. The McCune-Reischauer (M-R) system introduced in 1939 and currently used by U.S. government agencies is an example of the phonetic romanization system. According to the M-R system, a given Korean syllable can be transliterated into several different Latin language expressions depending on sound variations. Since the pronunciation of a Korean character depends on its position relative to adjacent characters and the pronunciation of a given syllable of the Korean language also varies from person to person and from one Korean province to another, the romanization of the given Korean syllables of the Korean language transliterated by the M-R system is ambiguous, complicated and difficult. Moreover, a reverse transliteration under the M-R system is also ambiguous since the romanized Latin expression can be identified with not just one but several different Korean expressions. Furthermore, another shortcoming of the M-R system is that there are no well established rules for placing a space and a hyphen between Korean syllables of the Korean language. There are additional ambiguities caused by many different ways of implementing diacritical symbols under the M-R system.
For example, a Korean geographical name  can be romanized by the M-R system in at least 192 different ways, such as P""onganbuk-to, P""y{haeck over (o)}nganbuk-to, P""yong""anbuk-to, P""y{haeck over (o)}ng""anbuk-to, P""yongan-bukto, Pyongan Puk-to, Pyongan-buk To, Pyongan Pukto, Pyonganbuk-To, and Pyongan-bukto. These variations are due to the combination of the following three different effects: a given Korean consonant or vowel of the Korean Language romanized into different Latin expressions; many different ways of using hyphens and spaces in the Latin expressions; the M-R system employing diacritics in many different ways.
Since the given original Korean syllable of Korean language is identified with the several different syllables of the Latin language, the information about the original Korean spelling would be lost during the romanization process. Therefore, the M-R system is not suited for computer data search and retrieval. Search for the original given Korean syllables is extremely difficult because a user has difficulties guessing in what romanized syllables of the Korean word or name were originally entered into the computer apparatus. Moreover, automatic transliteration of the M-R system is impossible in the computer because hundreds of pronunciation rules should be incorporated into transliteration software programmed in the computer and because many of the rules governing the use of the M-R system are variable and subjective.
According to traditional Korean romanization or transliteration systems, characters of Korean language are romanized into characters of English language by using a table showing a correspondence between the characters of Korean language and the characters of the English language as shown in a plurality of romanization tables of a Korean-English Dictionary published by Martin et al. which is available on an Internet site at http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/flux/korean.htm. These conventional systems, however, do not assure phonetic fidelity between pronunciation of the individual syllables of Korean language and the syllables of English language. An English syllabic consonant or vowel does not adequately represent the pronunciation of the corresponding Korean syllabic consonant or vowel.
Moreover, the conventional systems show ambiguity between the syllables of English language and the corresponding syllables of Korean language because the individual syllables of Korean are romanized into a plurality of several different syllables of English language and because the syllables of English language are assigned to a plurality of several different individual syllables of Korean language. Since the correspondence between the syllables of English language and the corresponding syllables of Korean language shows the ambiguity and lacks the phonetic fidelity, the conventional transliteration table can not be automated with a computer system for automatically converting the syllables of Korea language into the syllables of English language.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a transliteration system able to provide a unique and unambiguous correspondence between individual syllables of Korean language and syllables of English language.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a transliteration system implemented into a computer for automatically converting syllables of Korean language into syllables of English language or syllables of English language into syllables of Korean language.
It is still object to provide a transliteration system capable of assuring phonetic fidelity between syllables of Korean language and syllables of English language.
It is further object to provide a transliteration system able to prevent a given syllables of Korean language from being converted into more than one different syllables of English language.
It is further object to provide a romanization system able to prevent syllables of English language from being converted into more than two different syllables of Korean language.
It is also an object to provide a romanization system able to separate each of the syllables of the romanized word by a space so that the romanized word can be converted back to individual syllables of Korean language without ambiguity.
These and other objects may be achieved by providing a computerized romanization system including a keyboard having a plurality of keys each representing a different English language character, a memory having a lookup table showing a unique and unambiguous correspondence between individual Korean language vowels and Korean language consonants, and English language vowels and English language consonants, with the table being constructed to assure phonetic fidelity between pronunciation of the individual Korean language characters and the corresponding English characters, a microprocessor connected to the keyboard and a display device.
This invention provides a Korean language input method where the microprocessor receives through the key board, a source passage of serial groups of one or more keystrokes of the English language characters with each of the group comprising selected syllables of English language, the microprocessor automatically converting each of the serial groups of English language characters into a destination passage in Korean language having the individual syllables of Korean language in accordance with the look-up table, and a video display device providing a visual display of the destination passage containing the individual syllables of Korean language. The microprocessor receives through the keyboard a xe2x80x9csourcexe2x80x9d passage of English syllables, which represent Korean syllables. Upon the user""s command, the microprocessor converts the English syllables into a xe2x80x9cdestinationxe2x80x9d passage comprising the Korean syllables equivalent to the source passage in accordance with the look-up table of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. When the English syllables corresponding to the individual syllables of Korean language are typed into the computer system and followed by a space keystroke, the English syllables are automatically converted into the corresponding individual syllables of Korean language. A video display device provides a visual display of the source passage first, which is then replaced by the destination passage after the conversion takes place.
This invention also contemplates machine transliteration software to be implemented into a computerized system having a microprocessor and a look-up table. Serial groups of Korean syllables, such as one created by a Korean word-processor that are contained in the memory and displayed on the screen, are automatically converted into the corresponding serial groups of English syllables in accordance with the look-up table.